Yannis & The Yaw (Foals’ Yannis Philippakis) Share “Rain Can’t Reach Us” Featuring Tony Allen

Uniting the genre-blurring drumming skills of the late, legendary drummer Tony Allen with a fresh perspective on the songwriting flair of Foals’ frontman Yannis Philippakis, the Yannis & The Yaw project has become one of the most fascinating new collaborations of the year. Now interest in the project will be magnified ahead of the August 30 of the Lagos Paris London EP with two major developments: the release of the new single “Rain Can’t Reach Us” and confirmation of the line-up for The Yaw’s imminent live shows.

“Rain Can’t Reach Us” is a hypnotic howl of intensity, with Tony Allen’s dexterous rhythms at the eye of the storm. It builds layer-upon-layer from an insistent Afrobeat-tinged loop into Yannis’s full-blooded hook and then the cathartic release of its outro. Its thunderous style fits its lyrics, which imagine the panic and futility of trying to escape from the results of apocalyptic environmental degradation.

Yannis says, “We actually referred to “‘Rain Can’t Reach Us” as “The Tornado” for a long time because it feels like a gale blowing through your house and it’s just cool to hear Tony at the heart of that. There’s a chance it could have become a Foals track, but sharing that idea with Tony made it become this other thing. I think that’s really exciting, it’s like putting in random coordinates, getting in your car and driving and not knowing where you’re going to show up. You could be led anywhere.”